Did Carnival Rank the Highest? EXPENSIVE CRUISE GOTCHA, Royal Leader Steps Down | The Cruise Show
Key Moments
Editorial Summary
The host discusses several recent developments within the cruise industry, beginning with a cautionary tale regarding Holland America Line. A couple was charged eight hundred dollars for a whale watching excursion after being automatically moved from a waitlist to a confirmed booking. Following media intervention, the cruise line apologized and issued a refund, subsequently announcing a policy change to include a confirmation window for excursions. The video also covers leadership changes at Royal Caribbean Group, noting that Richard Feain is stepping down as chairman of the board to be succeeded by Jason Liberty. In terms of destination management, the host reports on potential new passenger and ship restrictions being considered by officials in Mallorca, Spain. Finally, the host reviews cleanliness data from the CDC Vessel Sanitation Program for 2024. According to the analysis, Norwegian Cruise Line ranked highest with seven ships achieving perfect scores, followed by Royal Caribbean with five ships, and Carnival in third place with three ships receiving perfect scores.
Written by TripBacon from this video's transcript.
How This Review Compares
This review is more critical than the all-time creator consensus.
Source: Our analysis of the creator's lived experience, based on what they said in this video.
Creator's Key Takeaways
Man, cruising is expensive enough, but imagine getting charged for something on a cruise that you didn't even get to do.
Holland America Line told them, 'Look, you didn't get down here within 48 hours of your cruise excursion, so you can't cancel it, and you just have to eat the $800 charge.'
Norwegian Cruise Line leading the charge with seven cruise ships that had a perfect score on their inspection in 2024.
I think cruising has opened up the world to a lot of travelers that maybe wouldn't fly to a place or wouldn't try to embed themselves in a place for a week.
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Scale: 0–5 strips in half-step increments. 0 = “meh”, 5 = “bacon bliss”. Aggregated from creator-review sentiment, weighted by channel expertise.
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